The online environment is populated by many entities of different sorts. For example, human beings engage in various activities online such as participating in social networks, contributing to discussion groups or visiting chat rooms, corresponding with others, exchanging files, and other activities as well, to name just a few examples. Entities that are not living persons, such as organizations or other legal entities, can also have a substantial presence online and be involved in one or more undertakings.
Entities can have a more or less well-defined persona (e.g., an identity) connected with their online presence. Sometimes, a characteristic of such a persona can be displayed or otherwise made available to others (e.g., to another online entity) while engaging in some activity. For example, the participants in a chat room can be identified by having respective unique user names to distinguish them from the other participants. The user name, then, and/or any other characteristic that is associated with the chat room visitor, can be considered part of that visitor's online persona.
The online user's persona sometimes includes one or more characteristics that can be considered self-declared. For example, when a person seeks to become a member in an online social network the person can be asked or required as part of applying for membership to provide their age, either as an exact number or as a range of years. The user sometimes provides other characteristics, such as their sex, profession, marital status or a listing of hobbies. Some information can be shared for establishing identity, such as billing information or address, to name two examples. Sometimes, such information is collected only for the benefit of the social network (or other organization) itself, and is not intended to be shared with anyone else. In other situations, however, there is an explicit understanding from the applicant's side that the collected information is to be shared or otherwise made available to others, for example in form of a profile on the new member that is available through the online organization.